A group of individuals who share a love of cycling and the outdoors. We will always stop for a photo, or to hit a rope swing… Rubber side up!

Where did Prolly is Not Probably go?

It is still here, and then some. PiNP was one person’s opinion and voice. Now we are a collective – a community of diverse opinions and rich stories.

What does the Radavist mean?

Rad + Atavist = RADAVIST

Why does a porpoise surf a wave, or a sea otter slide down a rock? Atavism is a primal trait in humans and animals that drives us to do what we do – what ought to come naturally. Atavism is why we ride the way we ride; From mashing the city on a track bike to shredding the trails on full suspension. Take the time to get rad.

I had the wonderful opportunity a few weeks ago to introduce Brian Vernor to Ian Sutton of Icarus Frames, where he took some photos of Ian’s tiny shop in South Austin. This being my favorite. I’ve shot this photo before, but there’s just something about seeing it in 35mm format… See more at Vernor’s Flickr.

The one, of many reasons why I love Rock Lobster Cycles is Paul’s ability to make even a utilitarian, race machine sexy. All in house. Now, I call this utilitarian but in reality, it’s more of a rarity. The tubeset used in this bike was developed by Easton over ten years ago and never went into production. A special tubeset for a special racer: Aaron Bradford. Leave it to Vernor to capture this bike in a way that even makes me look at the way I photograph bicycles! See the rest here.

Living in the Great Plains of the US means you spend a lot of time riding gravel roads and it just so happens, people take that very seriously these days. Today was the Gravel Road World Championships in Lincoln, Nebraska and Brian Vernor has some great photos up on his Flickr from last year’s event. I’d love to make it out and “compete” one year.

If you enjoy riding up and down ranges in the ‘wood, or tearing down fire roads, then Santa Cruz is heaven. There’s even great road riding but this trip, we stuck to the trails. USCSC has a ton of trails on its campus, all of which cross, zig zag, ascend and descend around neighboring systems. When I initially headed down from SF with Brian Vernor, my cross bike was in the car, which would have been a fine vehicle for the day but I made a few phone calls and ended up demo’ing an Ibis Ripley instead. Let’s just say the day was probably a lot more enjoyable (hopefully I’ll be able to review that bike extensively in the future).

Garrett from Strawfoot, Vernor and I did a series of loops, ranging from relatively technical, loose and sandy descents to wide-open, no fucks given blast-fests down through Wilder. None of us had a Garmin on our bikes, so I have no idea how long we were out there, or how far we traveled, but my legs told me around 30 ish miles and in trails, that’s a long afternoon, especially when Santa Cruz was spiking into the 90’s and no, that’s not a reference to the vernacular style of the town.

Santa Cruz was heaven for those few hours and people often ask why I don’t shoot photos of the more technical, beautiful singletrack when I ride MTB. It’s because we’re going too fast and no one wants to stop! Except when someone wrecks…

It’s a long weekend for us here in the States. Well, for most of us anyway. If you’re lucky enough to have time off, seek the sound of gravel, asphalt or trail crunching beneath your tires, as exhibited here by Brian Vernor and Garrett from Strawfoot in Santa Cruz.

Since Brian introduced me to Black Cat‘s work a few years ago, I’ve slowly fallen in love with Todd’s craftsmanship. In fact, this bike was my first introduction to the Black Cat moniker. As Brian puts it “I really love that bike” and it’s easy to see why.

Most mountain bikes, well, hardtails anyway, can be documented in ten photos. This one in particular would fall in that category, save for the amazing dropouts and stays. That and the paint job. I had the opportunity to rip through some of Santa Cruz’s trails with Brian last week and aside from one spill, this bike flowed amazingly well through the off-camber, technical descents as well as it scaled up some steep sections.

Even in the few minutes I spent rolling this bike around the block, looking for a photo location, I could see why Mr. Vernor loves it so much. See for yourself in the Gallery!

Vernor’s old Santa Cruz digs saw many a faces over the years. I crashed there on one occasion and it just felt like home, something not easy for a guy who spends most of his time traveling… In the last few months of living there, he began shooting portraits of all the visitors he had. Check out a few more familiar faces on the Brian Vernor Making Blog.